Techniques of the Body

Hua Tuo to his disciple Wu Puc. 200

吾有一術、名曰五禽戲。一曰虎、二曰鹿、三曰熊、四曰猿、五曰鳥。⋯⋯虎戲者、四肢距地、前三擲、却二擲、長引腰、乍却仰天、即返距行前、却各七過也。鹿戲者、四肢距地、引項反顧、左三右二、左右伸脚、伸縮亦三亦二也。熊戲者、正仰、以兩手抱膝下、舉頭、左僻地七、右亦七。⋯⋯猿戲者、攀物自懸、伸縮身體、上下一七。⋯⋯鳥戲者、雙立手、翹一足、伸兩臂、揚眉鼓力、右二七。

“I have a method called the Five Animal Frolics: first the tiger, second the deer, third the bear, fourth the ape, fifth the bird. … The tiger: all four limbs on the ground, spring forward three times and back two, stretch the waist long, then turn the face to the sky, return to all fours and go forward and back, seven times each. The deer: four limbs on the ground, stretch the neck and look back, three to the left and two to the right, and stretch the legs out to left and right, three and two. The bear: lie on the back, hold below the knees with both hands, lift the head, and drop to the ground seven times on the left and seven on the right. … The ape: hang from something, stretch and contract the body, up and down seven times. … The bird: stand with the hands together, lift one foot, spread both arms, raise the brows and gather strength, twice seven on the right.”

“Do it until you sweat, then stop, and dust the body with powder.” Wu Pu, the text says, practised it past ninety with his teeth intact.

Daoyin prescriptions, in Chao Yuanfang’s Treatise on the Origins of Diseases · Chinese, 610Siku edition, vol. 1; the page is headed “Oral Instructions on the Golden Body”

又云兩足跟相對坐上兩足指向外扒兩膝頭拄席兩向外扒使急始長舒兩手兩向取勢一一皆急三七去五勞腰脊膝疼傷冷脾痺

“It also says: place the two heels against each other, sit up, point the two toes outward, and use the two knees to brace against the mat, pushing them both outward until they feel tight. Then, slowly stretch both hands outward to take the position; each move must be tense. Repeat three times seven times to remove the five exhaustions and pain in the waist, spine, and knees, and to treat spleen blockage.”

Chao’s treatise attaches a guiding-and-pulling exercise to each disease, as a prescription. The same page has elbows raised and lowered three times seven, and a kneeling stretch twice seven on each side.

Embryonic breathingJin dynasty

初學行炁，鼻中引炁而閉之，陰以心數至一百二十，乃以口微吐之。及引之，皆不欲令己耳聞其出入之聲，常令入多出少。以鴻毛著鼻口之上，吐炁而鴻毛不動為候也。漸自轉增其心數，久可以至千。

“When first learning to circulate the breath, draw it in through the nose and hold it. Silently, in the heart, count to one hundred and twenty; then let it out gently through the mouth. Neither the drawing in nor the letting out should be loud enough for your own ears to hear. Always let more come in than goes out. Lay a goose-down feather over the nose and mouth: when you breathe out and the feather does not move, you have it. Gradually increase the count. In time you can reach a thousand.”

The Chan school, with Zhu Xi’s Maxim on Regulating the Breath · Chinesein Essence of the Taoist Canon, 1922

禪家謂息有四種。凡鼻息往來有聲者。此風也。非息也。守風則散。雖無聲。而鼻中澀滯。此喘也。非息也。守喘則結。不聲不滯。而往來有迹者。此氣也。非息也。守氣則勞。所謂息者。乃不出不入之義。

“The Zen school teaches that there are four kinds of breathing. When the breath through the nose makes an audible sound, this is ‘Wind,’ not ‘Breath.’ Focusing on Wind causes the energy to scatter. When there is no sound but the breath is hesitant or blocked, this is ‘Panting,’ not ‘Breath.’ Focusing on Panting causes the energy to knot. When there is no sound and no blockage, but the movement of the breath is still perceptible, this is ‘Qi,’ not ‘Breath.’ Focusing on this Qi causes fatigue. That which is called True Breath carries the meaning of ‘neither exiting nor entering.’”

The four breaths are Zhiyi’s, from the Tiantai manual of seated meditation. Zhu Xi’s maxim follows on the page: exhale at the height of stillness “like a fish in a spring pond,” inhale at the height of movement “like a hundred hibernating insects,” until the breath passes in and out through every pore.

The Song of Banishing Disease Through the Four Seasons · Chinesethe Six Healing Sounds, in Essence of the Taoist Canon, 1922

春噓明目木扶肝 夏至呵心火自閑 秋呬定收金肺潤 腎吹惟要坎中安 三焦嘻卻除煩熱 四季長呼脾化餐 切忌出聲聞口耳 其功尤勝保神丹

“In Spring, use Xu to brighten the eyes and let Wood support the Liver. At the Summer Solstice, use He so the Heart-Fire remains calm. In Autumn, use Si to gather energy and keep the Metal-Lungs moist. For the Kidneys, use Chui only, to find peace within the Kan. The Xi sound of the Triple Burner removes vexation and heat. Throughout the four seasons, a long Hu helps the Spleen transform food. Take great care not to let the sound be heard by your own mouth or ears; its merit then surpasses even the most precious divine elixir.”

Six syllables breathed out without voice: xu for the liver, he for the heart, si for the lungs, chui for the kidneys, xi for the triple burner, hu for the spleen. The preceding page adds postures for several of them: hugging the knees for chui, hands clasped above the head for he.

Chen Zhizun, On the True Breath · Chinese, 1666Inner Alchemy Essays, commenting Zhuangzi

眾人之息。以喉。真人之息以踵。以踵者。謂深入乎氣穴也。

“The breathing of ordinary people is through the throat, while the breathing of the True Man is through the heels.” Breathing through the heels means descending deep into the Qixue [energy cavity].

Zhuangzi’s line read as a method: the spirit rests on the breath and goes down with it to the root, “continuous and existing as if it were not,” until ordinary breathing gives way to embryonic breathing.

Siddhāsana, the adept’s seatverse I.35

योनिस्थानकमंघ्रिमूलघटितं कृत्वा दृढं विन्यसेन्मेंढ्रे पादमथैकमेव हृदये कृत्वा हनुं सुस्थिरम् ॥ स्थाणुः संयमितेन्द्रियोऽचलदृशा पश्येद्भ्रुवोरंतरं ह्येतन्मोक्षकपाटभेदजनकं सिद्धासनं प्रोच्यते ॥ ३५ ॥

“Press the heel firmly against the perineum. Place the other foot above the genitals. Fix the chin firmly against the heart. Remaining steady with the senses controlled and a steady gaze, look at the space between the eyebrows. This is called the adept’s seat; it forces open the door to liberation.”

अंघ्रिर्वामश्चरणस्तस्य मूलेन पार्ष्णिभागेन घटितं संलग्नं कृत्वा । स्थानांन्तरं एकं पादं दक्षिणं पादं मेंढ्रैंद्रियस्योपरिभागे दृढं यथा स्यात्तथा विन्यसेत् । हृदये हृदयसमीपे हनुं चिबुकं सुस्थिरं सम्यक्स्थिरं कृत्वा हनुहृदययोश्चतुरंगुलमंतरं यथा भवति तथा कृत्वेति रहस्यं ।

The commentary: “Having placed the base of the left foot, meaning the heel, firmly against the perineum, one should then place the other foot, the right, firmly on the upper part of the genitals. Fix the chin steadily near the heart, so that there is a gap of four fingers between chin and chest. That is the secret.”

The next verse gives the other school’s version, left ankle above the genitals, right ankle on top, and lists the pose’s other names: vajrāsana, muktāsana, guptāsana.

Bhedanāsana, the piercing posture, in Hindi verseSvarodaya, c. 1800

भेदन आसन कह्यो बुझाई प्रथम दृजानू बैठ कथा ई ॥५३॥ दोहा मुख वाम करा बांध के दाहिन जाम परथाप दक्षिण कुदनी तास पर धरै कछुकत हो चाप ॥५४॥ चौपई पुन कर दाहिन मुही बंधावै ठोड़ी ति लें सहत बल कावै युगुत चतुर कर कटि न कराई नाभी औ च पीठ सो लाई ॥५५॥

“The piercing posture, explained: first sit on both knees. Bind the left hand near the face and place it on the right thigh; set the right heel against the body and press a little. Then bind the right hand the same way and hold the chin with steady strength. The clever practitioner does not let the waist bend, and draws the navel toward the spine.”

Braj Bhasha verse, in the dohā and chaupāī metres, printed around 1800. The heel is kudanī; the couplet numbers are the poem’s own.

The listII.44

सूर्यभेदनमुज्जायी सीत्कारी शीतली तथा । भस्त्रिका भ्रामरी मूर्च्छा प्लाविनीत्यष्टकुम्भकाः ॥ ४४ ॥

“Sun-piercing, victorious, hissing, cooling, bellows, bee, swooning, floating: these are the eight retentions.”

Sūryabhedana, sun-piercingII.48–50

आसने सुखदे योगी बद्ध्वा चैवासनं ततः । दक्षनाड्या समाकृष्य बहिःस्थं पवनं शनैः ॥ ४८ ॥ आकेशादानखाग्राच्च निरोधावधि कुंभयेत् । ततः शनैः सव्यनाड्या रेचयेत्पवनं शनैः ॥ ४९ ॥ कपालशोधनं वातदोषघ्नं कृमिदोषहृत् । पुनः पुनरिदं कार्यं सूर्यभेदनमुत्तमम् ॥ ५० ॥

“Seated comfortably in his posture, the yogi should slowly draw the outer air in through the right channel. He should hold it to the limit of retention, from the hair to the tips of the nails. Then slowly, slowly, let the breath out through the left channel. It cleanses the skull, destroys the disorders of wind, and removes worms. Do this excellent sun-piercing again and again.”

Ujjāyī, the victoriousII.51–53

मुखं संयम्य नाडीभ्यामाकृष्य पवनं शनैः । यथा लगति कंठात्तु हृदयावधि सस्वनम् ॥ ५१ ॥ पूर्ववत्कुंभयेत्प्राणं रेचयेडि़डया ततः ॥ ५२ ॥ ⋯ गच्छता तिष्ठता कार्यमुज्जाय्याख्यं तु कुंभकम् ॥ ५३ ॥

“Closing the mouth, draw the air slowly through both nostrils so that it touches from the throat down to the heart, with a sound. Hold it as before, then let it out through the left channel. … The retention called ujjāyī may be done walking or standing.”

Bhastrikā, the bellowsII.59–63

सम्यक्पद्मासनं बद्ध्वा समग्रीवोदरं सुधीः । ⋯ पुनर्रेचयेत्तद्वत्पूरयेच्च पुनः पुनः ॥ यथैव लोहकारेण भस्त्रा वेगेन चाल्यते ॥ ६२ ॥ तथैव स्वशरीरस्थं चालयेत्पवनं धिया । यदा श्रमो भवेद्देहे तदा सूर्येण पूरयेत् ॥ ६३ ॥

“Sitting properly in the lotus, neck and belly in line, the wise one … lets the breath out and fills again, again and again, just as a blacksmith works his bellows at speed. So should he drive the air in his own body, with attention. When the body tires, fill through the sun channel.”

The commentary adds the other manner: close the left nostril with ring finger and little finger, fill through the right, then close the right with the thumb.

Prāṇāyāma by measureSanskrit leaf in a Bhutanese monastery collection, c. 1700

अथ प्राणायामः ॥ द्वात्रिंशन्मात्राभिः पूरयेद्वायुनाडिकायाः ॥ चतुःषष्ट्या मात्राभिः कुंभयेद्वायुनाडिकायाः ॥ द्वात्रिंशन्मात्राभिः रेचयेद्वायुनाडिकायाः ॥ एवं प्राणायामो भवति ॥

“Now prāṇāyāma. Fill the breath in the channel with thirty-two measures. Hold the breath in the channel with sixty-four measures. Expel the breath from the channel with thirty-two measures. Such is prāṇāyāma.”

A ratio of 1 : 2 : 1 for inhalation, retention and exhalation.

Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośabhāṣya VI.12 · Sanskrit, 4th–5th c.ed. with Yaśomitra’s commentary, 1923

तत्र च गणना नाम आश्वासप्रश्वासेषु चित्तं दत्त्वाऽनभिसंस्कारेण कार्यं चित्तं नाध्युपेक्ष्य स्मृतिमात्रेण गणयति---एकं द्वौ यावद्दश । चित्ताभिसंक्षेपविक्षेपभयान्नाल्पबहुतरा ।

“Among these, counting means focusing the mind on the inhalations and exhalations; without forcing the breath, one lets the mind function and counts by the power of mindfulness alone—from one to ten. One should not count less or more than ten for fear of the mind becoming too contracted or distracted.”

The first of six stages of mindfulness of breathing: counting, following, fixing, observing, turning, purifying. Three errors are named: counting two breaths as one, one as two, or confusing in-breath and out-breath. If the mind wanders, start again at one.

Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra II.50, with Bhoja’s commentary · SanskritThe Yoga Philosophy, tr. Ballantyne, ed. Tookaram Tatya, 1885

बाह्यवृत्तिः श्वासो रेचकः । अन्तर्वृत्तिः प्रश्वासः पूरकः । अन्तस्तम्भवृत्तिः कुम्भकः । तस्मिन् जलमिव कुम्भे निश्चलतया प्राणा अवस्थान्त इति कुम्भकः॥

“‘That which is outer’ is the expiration, or expelling; ‘that which is inner’ is the inspiration, or filling; ‘that which abides steady’ within is called kumbhaka (retention). It is called kumbhaka because, when it takes place, the vital spirits rest motionless like water in a jar (kumbha).”

The commentary measures the breath three ways: by place (“twelve from the nose,” twelve inches), by time (thirty-six mātrās), and by number of rounds. The Sanskrit is Bhoja’s gloss, printed beneath the English.

Śivasvarodaya, vv. 379–380 · Sanskritwith a Hindi commentary, 1920

कुम्भयेत्सहजं वायुं यथाशक्ति प्रकल्पयेत् । रेचयेच्चन्द्रमार्गेण सूर्येणापूरयेत्सुधीः ॥ ३७९ ॥ चन्द्र पिबति सूर्यश्च सूर्य पिबति चन्द्रमाः ।

“One should retain the natural breath, practicing according to one’s strength. The wise man should exhale through the Moon path and inhale through the Sun. The Sun drinks the Moon, and the Moon drinks the Sun.”

The moon path is the left nostril, the sun path the right. The treatise reads the day by which nostril is flowing; here the practice alternates them deliberately.

Pañca Pakṣi Śāstra, the science of breath · Tamil, 1863attributed to Agastya, with a prose commentary

சரம்பார்க்கிறவன் முன்கவிகளிற் சொல்லியபடி பிராதகாலத்தில் அருணோதயத்திற்கு முன்னெழுந்து ஞாயிறுசெவ்வாய்க் கிழமைகளுக்குத் தென்புறமாய் மூன்றடி முன் ⋯ போகவும் சனி வியாழன்களுக்கு மூன்றடி மேற்கே போகவும் திங்கள் வெள்ளிக்கு நாலடி வடக்கேபோகவும் புதனுக்கு இரண்டடிகிழக்கே போகவும்

“The practitioner of breath science should rise before the break of dawn as described in the previous verses. On Sundays and Tuesdays, face the South and take three steps forward ⋯ On Saturdays and Thursdays, walk three steps to the West. On Mondays and Fridays, walk four steps to the North. On Wednesdays, walk two steps to the East.”

The remedy when the breath runs through the wrong nostril for the day: make the breath “full” in the day’s direction, lead with the matching foot, walk the prescribed steps, then sit on a seat and meditate.

Someśvara III, Mānasollāsa, the wrestlers’ regimen, vv. 49–52 · Sanskrit, c. 1130the pillar exercise

आश्लेषयोग्यं सुलक्ष्णमूर्ध्वं बाहुतलोन्नतम् ॥ ४९ ॥ दृढं निखानितं स्तम्भं चर्चितं चन्दनादिना । उत्प्लुत्याक्रम्य सक्थिभ्यां बाहुभ्यां चैव वक्षसा ॥ ५० ॥ दृढं सम्पीड्य तं स्तम्भं पद्भ्यामूर्ध्वं समाश्रयेत् । बाहुभ्यां च ततोऽभ्यामावर्तनविवर्तनैः ॥ ५१ ॥ अधश्चोर्ध्वं च संश्लेष्य स्तम्भेन श्रममाचरेत् । एवं कृतश्रमा मल्लाः पुष्टा हृष्टाः समागताः ॥ ५२ ॥

“A pillar fit to be embraced, smooth, upright, taller than the reach of the arms, firmly planted, rubbed with sandal and the like: leaping up, one seizes it with the thighs, the arms and the chest, and having gripped it hard, climbs it with the feet; then with both arms, by winding and unwinding, clinging to the pillar, one works up and down. Wrestlers who have exercised so come back sturdy and cheerful.”

Not yoga: the royal encyclopedia’s chapter on wrestlers (mallavinoda). The exercise is the ancestor of mallakhamb, whose 1922 Marathi manual is also held. Preceding verses give the weights (goṇikā) lifted at dawn, the walk of one krośa outside the town, and neck-deep water stirred with the arms. Where the edition prints a corrected reading in parentheses, the correction is taken.

Pith instructions of the completion stage · Tibetan manuscript, c. 1700Thor bu dGongs ’dus rdzogs rim man ngag, Tshamdrak

རླུང་རོ་དགུ་ཕྲུགས་བུམ་པ་ཅན། །རླུང་ནི་ཁ་སྦྱོར་བཟུང་བར་བྱ། །སྟེང་རླུང་མནན་ཞིང་འོག་རླུང་འཐེན། །ལྟེ་བའི་ཐད་དུ་ཁ་སྦྱོར་བསྒོམ། །དེ་ལྟར་བཟུང་བས་དྲོད་སྐྱེ་ཞིང་། །

“Perform the nine-fold clearing of stale breath and the vase-breathing. Hold the winds in the ‘joined-union’ manner. Press the upper wind down and pull the lower wind up. Meditate on this union at the level of the navel. By holding it thus, inner heat is generated.”

Seated cross-legged, spine “like an arrow,” gaze at the tip of the nose. A later folio spells out the nine rounds, three from the left nostril, three from the right, three from both, with sickness imagined leaving as black smoke. The vase breath held below the navel is the method of gtum mo, inner heat.

Corpus Hermeticum XIII, the hymn of rebirth · Greek, 2nd–3rd c.Latin of Marsilio Ficino, Pimander, 1481

Sic enim te quoque decet orantem sub diuo, occidente sole ad austrum, oriente uero ad eurum faciem uertere.

“For it is fitting for you also, when praying under the open sky, to turn your face to the south as the sun sets, and at sunrise to the east wind.”

Hermes gives his son Tat the posture before he sings the hymn: outdoors, facing a fixed direction for each hour. Ficino’s abbreviations are expanded.

Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life §96–98 · Greek, c. 300ed. Nauck, 1884

τοὺς μὲν ἑωθινοὺς περιπάτους ἐποιοῦντο οἱ ἄνδρες οὗτοι κατὰ μόνας τε καὶ εἰς τοιούτους τόπους ἐν οἷς συνέβαινεν ἠρεμίαν τε καὶ ἡσυχίαν εἶναι σύμμετρον ⋯ μετὰ δὲ τὴν τοιαύτην διατριβὴν ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν σωμάτων ἐτρέποντο θεραπείαν. ἐχρῶντο δὲ ἀλείμμασί τε καὶ δρόμοις οἱ πλεῖστοι, ἐλάττονες καὶ πάλαις ἔν τε κήποις καὶ ἐν ἄλσεσιν, οἳ δὲ καὶ ἁλτηροβολίᾳ ἢ χειρονομίᾳ, πρὸς τὰς τῶν σωμάτων ἰσχὺς τὰ εὔθετα ἐπιτηδεύοντες ἐκλέγεσθαι γυμνάσια.

“These men took their morning walks alone, and to places where there was fitting calm and quiet ⋯ After such discussion they turned to the care of their bodies. Most of them used oil and running; fewer, wrestling, in gardens and groves; and some the throwing of the halteres or cheironomia, choosing exercises suited to the strength of their bodies.”

The day is fixed from dawn to dinner, which had to be finished before sunset. The evening walk was taken in twos and threes, going over the day’s lessons. The halteres are the hand-weights Mercuriale prescribes below; cheironomia is exercise with the hands and arms.

Marinus, Life of Proclus §22 · Greek, 486ed. Boissonade, 1814

καὶ ταῦτα πάντα μετὰ τὴν νυκτερινὴν ἐκείνην καὶ ἄγρυπνον θρησκείαν, μετὰ τὸ προσκυνῆσαι ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα, μεσουρανοῦντά τε καὶ ἐπὶ δύσιν ἰόντα.

“…and all this after that sleepless devotion of the night, after worshipping the sun as it rose, at midday, and as it set.”

Proclus’ day as his student recorded it: a night vigil, worship of the sun three times, five lectures and about seven hundred lines written. Marinus also records monthly fasts and the hymns Proclus had recited to him through his last illness.

George Gemistos Plethon, Laws III · Greek, c. 1450ed. Alexandre, 1858

πρῶτα μὲν, ἄνω τε ἅπαντας βλέψαντας, καὶ ἐς γόνατε ἄμφω κεκλιμένους, τώ τε χεῖρε ἠρκότας ὑπτίω, ἐπάδειν, Ἵλεῳ εἴητ’, ὦ θεοί. Σὺν ᾧ προσφθέγματι, θεοὺς πρότερον τοὺς Ὀλυμπίους προσκυνεῖν τῇ μὲν δεξιᾷ τοῖν χειροῖν τοῦ ἐδάφους ἁπτομένους, τοῖν δὲ γονάτοιν θάτερον ἐν τῷ τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ ἐδάφους ἅπτεσθαι ὑπαίροντας. ⋯ προσκυνεῖν δὲ ἀμφοῖν μὲν τοῖν γονάτοιν, ἀμφοῖν δὲ καὶ τοῖν χειροῖν, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις τῇ κεφαλῇ τοῦ ἐδάφους ἁπτομένους.

“First all should look upward, kneel on both knees, and raise both hands with the palms up, and intone: ‘Be gracious, O gods.’ With this address they should first reverence the Olympian gods, touching the ground with the right hand and, while the hand touches the ground, lifting the knee on that side. ⋯ [To Zeus] they should make the reverence with both knees and both hands, and then by touching the ground with the head.”

A Neoplatonist liturgy with fixed hours (morning, afternoon, evening, before dinner) and fixed postures, written by the philosopher who lectured on Plato at Florence in 1439. After his death the patriarch Gennadios burned the book; the prayers survived.

Iamblichus, On the Mysteries III.5 · Greek, c. 300ed. Parthey, 1857

⋯ παντελεῖς τε αὐτοῦ ἠρεμίαι, τάξεις τε ἐναρμόνιοι καὶ χορεῖαι καὶ φωναὶ ἐμμελεῖς ἢ τἀναντία τούτων· καὶ ἤτοι τὸ σῶμα ἐπαιρόμενον ὁρᾶται ἢ διογκούμενον ἢ μετέωρον ἐν τῷ ἀέρι φερόμενον ἢ τἀναντία τούτων περὶ αὐτὸ φαίνεται γιγνόμενα.

“⋯ some are completely at rest; harmonious orders and dances and melodious voices, or the opposites of these, are observed; and either the body is seen to be lifted up or expanded or carried aloft in the air, or the opposites of these appear to happen around it.”

A description, not a prescription: the marks by which a genuine possession is recognised. Iamblichus lists the whole body moved, or single limbs, or complete rest, and says the one who leads the god sees the descending spirit and the one who receives it sees a form of fire. The same passage is held in Ficino’s Latin and in Taylor’s English.

Chaldean Oracle fr. 206 with the scholion of Michael Psellus · Greek, 2nd c. / 11th c.Oracula magica, ed. Opsopoeus, 1599

Ἐνέργει περὶ τὸν Ἑκατικὸν στρόφαλον. ⋯ Ἑκατικὸς στρόφαλος σφαῖρά ἐστι χρυσῆ, μέσον σάπφειρον περικλείουσα, διὰ ταυρείου στρεφομένη ἱμάντος, δι’ ὅλης αὐτῆς ἔχουσα χαρακτῆρας· ἣν δὴ στρέφοντες ἐποιοῦντο τὰς ἐπικλήσεις. ⋯ ἃ δὴ δονοῦντες τοῖς ἀσήμοις ἢ κτηνώδεσιν ἐξεφώνουν ἤχοις, γελῶντες, καὶ τὸν ἀέρα μαστίζοντες.

“Work at the Hecatic top.” ⋯ “The Hecatic top is a golden sphere enclosing a sapphire at its centre, turned by a strap of bull’s hide, with characters over its whole surface. Spinning it, they made their invocations. ⋯ Whirling these, they cried out in meaningless or animal sounds, laughing, and lashing the air.”

The oracle gives the order; Psellus gives the instrument and the action. Marinus records that Proclus used these “ineffable tops” in Chaldean rites (Life of Proclus §28). The translation here was made from the printed Greek, checked against the page image, which reads γελῶντες, “laughing”; the 1763 Latin paraphrase has ridentes.

The Mithras Liturgy, Greek Magical Papyri IV 537–562 · papyrus, 4th c.ed. Preisendanz, 1928

ἕλκε ἀπὸ τῶν ἀκτίνων πνεῦμα γʹ ἀνασπῶν, ὃ δύνασαι, καὶ ὄψῃ σεαυτὸν ἀνακουφιζόμενον καὶ ὑπερβαίνοντα εἰς ὕψος, ὥστε σε δοκεῖν μέσον τοῦ ἀέρος εἶναι. ⋯ σὺ δὲ εὐθέως ἐπίθες δεξιὸν δάκτυλον ἐπὶ τὸ στόμα καὶ λέγε· ‘σιγή, σιγή, σιγή, σύμβολον θεοῦ ζῶντος ἀφθάρτου· φύλαξόν με, σιγή’ ⋯ ἔπειτα σύρισον μακρὸν συριγμόν, ἔπειτα πόππυσον.

“Draw breath from the rays, inhaling three times as much as you can, and you will see yourself lifted up and passing into the height, so that you seem to be in the middle of the air. ⋯ Immediately place your right finger on your mouth and say: ‘Silence, silence, silence, symbol of the living, incorruptible God. Guard me, Silence.’ ⋯ Then make a long hissing sound, then a popping sound.”

The fullest breath-and-sound technique in Greek: three counted inhalations facing the sun, a gesture, and two sounds made with the lips. Later in the same rite the reader is told to bellow “until you are out of breath.” The liturgy is also held in Dieterich’s 1903 edition and in Betz’s English translation.

Proclus, Platonic Theology IV.9 · Greek, 5th c.Thomas Taylor’s English, 1816

And that which is the most admirable of all is this, that as theurgists order the whole body to be buried, except the head, in the most mystic of initiations, Plato also has anticipated this, being moved by the Gods themselves.

Quoted as printed; the Greek of the Platonic Theology is not yet held in a transcribed edition. Proclus reads the rite through the Phaedrus: the soul sees the intelligible “liberated from this surrounding vestment,” with only the head, the charioteer’s, raised above the heaven. A 1635 Latin treatise in the library quotes the Greek phrase, οἱ θεουργοὶ θάπτειν τὸ σῶμα κελεύουσι, πλὴν τῆς κεφαλῆς.

Antyllus, in Oribasius, Medical Collections VI.21 and VI.33 · Greek, 2nd c.Latin of Rasario, Venice 1555

tum crura impariter mouenda, calcibusque incedendum: tum pectoribus pedum cum poplitum contentione ambulandum. ac initio quidem quiete, deinceps vero vehementius, & rursus vicissim remittendum. ⋯ suspenditur autem in gymnasiis superne è culmine, tantumque à terra distat, ut fundum ad eius, qui exercetur, umbilicum pertineat.

“At times the legs should be moved unevenly and one should walk on the heels, and at times walk on the balls of the feet with the knees tensed. At the beginning, one should walk quietly, then more vehemently, and then in turn relax again. ⋯ [The sack] is suspended in gymnasiums from above from the ceiling, and it is so far from the ground that the bottom reaches to the navel of the person exercising.”

Antyllus’ set runs through walking, running, being carried, leaping (the Spartan jump, heels to buttocks), the small and the large ball, and the punching sack, filled with fig seeds or flour for the weak and sand for the strong.

Galen, Advice for an Epileptic Boy · Greek, 2nd c.Opera omnia, ed. Kühn, vol. 11, 1821

χρὴ δὲ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα διὰ σινδόνων ἀτρέμα ἄνωθεν κάτω τῶν χειρῶν φερομένων ἐρυθραίνειν τὸ σῶμα, τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ βραχιόνων τε καὶ χειρῶν ποιουμένοις, εἶθ’ οὕτως ἐπὶ τὰ στέρνα τε καὶ γαστέρα προϊόντας, ἑξῆς δὲ καὶ τὰ σκέλη τρίβειν ἱκανώτερον

“One must first make the body turn red by rubbing gently from the upper parts to the lower parts using linen cloths. This process begins with the arms and hands. It then proceeds to the chest and the stomach. Next, it is appropriate to rub the legs thoroughly.”

The trainer starts with small, slow movements of the legs, the head kept upright, and only then goes faster. The head is rubbed last, because whatever is warmed first draws the body’s excess toward it.

Xenophon, On Horsemanship VII · Greek, 4th c. BCOpera omnia, vol. 5, 1920

ἐπειδάν γε μὴν καθέζηται ἐάν τε ἐπὶ ψιλοῦ ἐάν τε ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐφιππίου, οὐ τὴν ὥσπερ ἐπὶ [τοῦ] δίφρου ἕδραν ἐπαινοῦμεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ὥσπερ εἰ ὀρθὸς ἂν διαβεβηκὼς εἴη τοῖν σκελοῖν. ⋯ χρὴ δὲ καὶ χαλαρὰν ἀπὸ τοῦ γόνατος ἀφεῖσθαι τὴν κνήμην σὺν τῷ ποδί.

“When he is seated, whether on a bare back or on a saddle cloth, we do not approve of the seat as if on a chair, but as if he were standing with his legs spread apart. ⋯ The lower leg, along with the foot, should also hang loosely from the knee.”

The page begins with the vault onto the horse, practised from both sides so the rider can mount with the spear in either hand, and ends with the body above the hips kept “as supple as possible.”

Vegetius, Epitome of Military Science I.9 and I.11 · Latin, c. 400ed. Lang, 1885

Militari ergo gradu XX milia passuum horis quinque dumtaxat aestiuis conficienda sunt. Pleno autem gradu, qui citatior est, totidem horis XXIIII milia peragenda sunt. ⋯ A singulis autem tironibus singuli pali defigebantur in terram, ita ut nutare non possent et sex pedibus eminerent.

“Therefore, at the military pace, twenty miles must be completed in five hours at most during the summer. But at the full pace, which is faster, twenty-four miles must be covered in the same number of hours. ⋯ Moreover, individual posts were fixed into the ground by individual recruits, in such a way that they could not wobble and stood six feet high.”

The recruit attacked the post with a wicker shield and a wooden club of double weight, aiming at head, flanks and legs. The same chapters prescribe running, jumping, swimming, vaulting onto a wooden horse, and marching with sixty pounds.

Aelian, On Drawing Up Battle Lines · Greek, 2nd c.Latin of Theodore Gaza, in the Aldine Vegetius, 1523

Constituta interualla conserua: ad hastam declina. collige: ita consiste in arrectum redde: ad scutum declina: collige ita consiste.

“Maintain the established intervals; decline toward the spear; gather; thus stand firm; return to the upright position; decline toward the shield; gather; thus stand firm.”

The drill as a call-and-response. Aelian notes that the direction must come before the verb, so that no one turns the wrong way.

Hesychios the Priest, To Theodoulos §189 · Greek, 8th–9th c.Philokalia, Venice 1782 / Athens 1893

ρπθ′. Εἰς πνοὴν σὴν καὶ ῥῖνας, ἔνωσον νῆψιν, καὶ Ἰησοῦ ὄνομα· ἢ μελέτην θανάτου ἀλάθητον, καὶ ταπείνωσιν. ὠφελεῖν γὰρ λίαν οἴδασι τὰ ἀμφότερα.

“189. Join watchfulness and the name of Jesus to your breath and your nostrils; or the unfailing remembrance of death, and humility. Both are known to help greatly.”

The earliest breath-prayer instruction in the Greek Philokalia: the name is said on the breath, at the nostrils. The later Hesychast method, chin on the chest and gaze at the navel (Nikephoros, pseudo-Symeon), is in the same 1893 volume but not yet on a transcribed page.

John Cassian, Institutes II.7, on the manner of praying · Latin c. 420, in the 1872 Frenchthe Egyptian monks

Avant de fléchir le genou, ils prient quelque temps et se tiennent presque toujours debout. Ils se prosternent ensuite un instant par terre pour adorer la bonté divine, puis ils se relèvent promptement et se tiennent les mains étendues, comme auparavant, en s’appliquant avec ardeur à la prière. Ils disent qu’en restant plus longtemps prosternés par terre, ils seraient plus exposés aux distractions, et aussi plus tourmentés par le sommeil.

“Before bending the knee they pray for some time, standing almost throughout. Then they prostrate themselves for an instant on the ground to adore the divine goodness, rise promptly, and stand with hands outstretched as before, applying themselves ardently to prayer. They say that by staying longer prostrate they would be more open to distraction, and more troubled by sleep.”

The oldest Western posture rule we hold. The reason given for keeping the prostration short: distraction and sleep. Cassian’s Latin Conferences are held (Petschenig 1886) but the Institutes only in this French edition.

Missale Romanum, Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae V.1 · Latin, rubric fixed 1570the celebrant’s hands

tum extendit manus ante pectus, ita ut palma unius manus respiciat alteram, et digitis simul junctis, quorum summitas humerorum altitudinem distantiamque non excedat, quod in omni extensione manuum ante pectus servatur. Stans autem, ut supra, extensis manibus, dicit Orationem. Cum dicit: Per Dóminum nostrum, jungit manus, easque junctas tenet usque ad finem.

“Then he extends his hands before his breast, so that the palm of one hand faces the other, the fingers held together, their tips not rising above the height of the shoulders nor spreading wider than them; and this is kept in every extension of the hands before the breast. Standing thus with hands extended, he says the Prayer. When he says Through our Lord, he joins his hands, and holds them joined to the end.”

The rubrics specify the celebrant’s posture word by word: bows at names, genuflection at the middle of the altar. This edition of the Missal is fully translated, 1,211 pages.

Rituale Romanum, Ordo Baptismi Parvulorum · Latin, editio princeps 1615the priest’s body, rubricated in italic

Deinde ter exsufflet leniter in faciem infantis, & dicat semel: Exi ab eo, vel ab ea, immunde spiritus, & da locum Spiritui sancto paraclito. Postea pollice faciat signum Crucis in fronte, & in pectore infantis.

“Then let him breathe gently three times upon the face of the infant, and say once: Go out from him, or from her, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Afterward let him make the sign of the Cross with his thumb on the forehead and on the breast of the infant.”

A counted breath, prescribed in the exorcism that opens the baptism rite. The italics in the original mark the rubric, what is done as distinct from what is said.

Indulgence rubric, in a Tuscan devotional manuscript · Latin, 1449Antoninus of Florence, Tractato de septe peccati mortali

qui flexis genibus coram ymagine pietatis dixerint quinquies pater noster et toties Ave Maria cum brachiis extensis in modum crucis

“…who, with knees bent before an image of piety, shall say the Lord’s Prayer five times and the Hail Mary just as many times with arms extended in the form of a cross.”

A prayer with its posture and count attached, copied at the end of a treatise on the seven deadly sins. The “image of piety” is the Man of Sorrows; the reward stated is twenty thousand and seven years of indulgence.

Sebastian Franck, Chronicle of Germany, on the flagellants · German, 1539after Jacobus of Mainz, an eyewitness

zwey mal des tags giengen sie inn die Tempel / entblösten sich biß auff die gürtel / vnd knieten an ein ring / vnd schlügen sich selbs mit gerten / etlich biß zum blüt / darnach zügebnem zeychen fielen sie alle mit geregelter andacht auffs angesicht auff die erd creütz weiß wie ein crucifyx

“Twice a day they went into the churches. They stripped to the waist and knelt in a circle. They beat themselves with rods, some until they bled. After that, at a given signal, they all fell to the earth in disciplined devotion. They lay on their faces in the shape of a cross, like a crucifix.”

A group rite with a fixed schedule, formation and signal. Franck adds that the company included nobles and commoners, priests, women and children.

Life of Henry Suso · German, 14th c.in Suso’s collected writings, 1661

mit diesem Creutz castente er sich lange zeit täglich zweymahl auff diese weiß/ mit der Faust stieß er auffs Creutz/ vnnd alsbald gingen die Nägel dergestalt ins fleisch/ daß man sie sambt den Kleidern herauß zihen muste.

“With this cross, he chastised himself twice daily for a long time in this way: he struck the cross with his fist, and immediately the nails went into the flesh in such a way that they had to be pulled out together with the clothes.”

The cross was worn on the back under the clothes. The same page ties each scourging to a point in his meditation on the Passion: at the pillar, and at the cross.

Bede, The Reckoning of Time I, on counting with the fingers · Latin, 725copied in Einsiedeln, Codex 319, c. 1000

Cum dicis decem, unguem indicis in medio figes artu pollicis. Cum dicis viginti, summitatem pollicis inter medios indicis et impudici artus inmittes. Cum dicis triginta, unguem indicis et pollicis blando coniunges amplexu.

“When you say ten, you will fix the nail of the index finger into the middle joint of the thumb. When you say twenty, you will place the tip of the thumb between the middle joints of the index and middle fingers. When you say thirty, you will join the nails of the index finger and the thumb in a gentle embrace.”

A complete sign system for the hands: units and tens on the left hand, hundreds and thousands on the right, larger numbers against the chest and thigh. Abbreviations expanded.

The rules for bowing in the standing prayer · Hebrewcopied into a 19th-century Hasidic manuscript

וצריך לשחות עד שיתפקקו כל חוליות שבשדרה (פי' שיבלטו) ואם היה זקן או חולה שאינו יכול לשחות עד שיתפקקו כיון שהרכין ראשו דיו.

“One must bow until all the vertebrae of the spine protrude. If one is elderly or infirm and cannot bow until the vertebrae protrude, it is sufficient to incline the head.”

The rule goes on: not too deep, which looks like pride; down gradually and up gradually; bend at “Blessed” and straighten at the Name. The rule is the halakhic one; this page is a copy of it in a manuscript of Hasidic discourses.

Eighteen Chapters, after Sefer Ḥasidim · Hebrew, 17th–18th c.Gaster Hebrew MS 1090

שצריך האדם לראות בשעה שהוא מתפלל שיהא פניו נגד הכותל כדי שלא יהא דבר חוצץ בינו ובין הכותל ויהיו עיניו למטה ולבו למעלה ויהיו ידיו מונחות על לבו אחת על חבירתה הימנית על השמאלית ויהיו רגליו מכוונות זה אצל זה

“A person must ensure, when they are praying, that their face is toward the wall. This is so that nothing will interpose between them and the wall. Their eyes should be cast downward, their heart upward, and their hands resting upon their heart, one upon the other—the right upon the left. Their feet should be placed together.”

The rule continues with what the body must not do while praying: no burping, no yawning, no spitting. If unavoidable, spit into the tallit or, for a person of importance, behind the left shoulder.

al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Book of the Secrets of Prayer · Arabic, written c. 1100the prostration

السجود ثم يهوي إلى السجود مكبرا فيضع ركبتيه على الأرض ويضع جبهته وأنفه وكفيه مكشوفة ويكبر عند الهوى ولا يرفع يديه في غير الركوع ، وينبغي أن يكون أول ما يقع منه على الأرض ركبتاه وأن يضع بعدهما يديه ثم يضع بعدهما وجهه وأنفه على الأرض وأن يجافي مرفقيه عن جنبيه

“The prostration. Then he sinks into prostration saying the takbīr, and places his knees on the ground, then his forehead, his nose and his bare palms. He says the takbīr as he goes down and does not raise his hands except at the bow. The first thing of him to reach the ground should be his knees; after them he sets down his hands, and after those his face and nose; and he holds his elbows away from his sides.”

ثم يقوم فيضع اليد على الأرض ولا يقدم إحدى رجليه في حال الارتفاع ويمد التكبير حتى يستغرق ما بين وسط ارتفاعه من القعود إلى وسط ارتفاعه إلى القيام . بحيث تكون الهاء من قوله « الله » عند استوائه جالسا ؛ وكاف « أكبر » عند اعتماده على اليد للقيام ، وراء « أكبر » في وسط ارتفاعه إلى القيام

“Then he rises, putting a hand on the ground, not setting one foot forward as he comes up, and he draws out the takbīr so that it fills the whole movement from mid-rise out of sitting to mid-rise into standing: the hāʾ of Allāh falls as he comes level in sitting, the kāf of akbar as he leans on his hand to stand, and the rāʾ of akbar at the midpoint of his rise.”

Each syllable of the takbīr is timed to a stage of the movement. Quoted without a link: the volume held is a 1937 Cairo printing that is not public on the site.

Abraham Abulafia, Life of the World to Come · Hebrew, c. 1280Braginsky Collection MS BC 251, fol. 53

וכפי משך שימתך תהיה התנועה העליונה למעלה עד שתפסוק הנשימה יחד עם התנועה

“According to the length of your breathing, the upper movement will be upward until you finish the breath together with the movement.”

Abulafia’s letter-combination practice: the head rises for exactly as long as one breath, eyes closed and mouth open, with up to three breaths allowed between letters. His Or ha-Sekhel gives each vowel its own direction of the head.

A Sufi instruction for silent dhikr, quoted in Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam · English, 1885entry “Zikr”

he must close his eyes, keep his mouth firmly shut, and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth; his teeth tight against each other, and hold his breath … He must retain his breath patiently, so that within one respiration he shall say the zikr three times

Quoted as printed: Hughes translates an instruction from an unnamed order. An Arabic dhikr treatise in the library (Leiden Or. 7179) gives the seated posture and the path of each syllable from the left side to the right shoulder to the heart, but is not yet translated.

Marsilio Ficino, De vita I.8, for those devoted to study · Latin, Florence 1489the scholar’s morning

Sed antequam e lecto surgas, perfrica parumper suauiterque palmis corpus totum primo. Deinde caput unguibus, sed id paulo leuius. ⋯ Deinde remittes parumper mentis intentionem: atque interim eburneo pectine diligenter et moderate pectes caput a fronte ceruicem uersus quadragies pectine ducto. Tum ceruicem panno asperiori perfrica.

“Before you rise from bed, first rub your whole body for a little while, gently, with your palms; then the head with your nails, but a little more lightly. ⋯ Then relax the focus of your mind for a little while, and meanwhile comb your head carefully and moderately with an ivory comb, from the forehead toward the neck, drawing the comb forty times. Then rub the neck with a rougher cloth.”

The routine continues: rise one or two hours before sunrise, half an hour for the body before any reading, one hour of meditation, then the comb, then two hours of study until noon, with a pause at least once an hour. Abbreviations expanded.

Girolamo Mercuriale, De arte gymnastica · Latin, Venice 1573the halteres, after Caelius Aurelianus

laudat in arthriticis Coelius Aurelianus, ut primo manibus cera emolienda detur, aut manipuli teneantur, quos palaestritae halteras appellant, tum primo cerei, siue lignei cum paruo plumbo intercluso mouendi porrigantur, deinde grauiores pro modo profectus

“Caelius Aurelianus praises it for the arthritic: first let wax be given to the hands to soften, or let handles be held, which the wrestlers call halteres; then first ones of wax, or of wood with a little lead shut inside, are to be handed over to be moved; then heavier ones, in proportion to progress.”

A graded weight progression, prescribed as treatment. Mercuriale compiles Galen, Oribasius and Antyllus; exercise is always prescribed for a condition. Three editions are held, all translated.

Santorio Santorio, De statica medicina, aphorisms VI and VIII · Latin, in the 1701 printingthe weighing chair

VI. Si cibus & potus unius diei sit ponderis octo librarum, transpiratio insensibilis ascendere solet ad quinque libras circiter. … VIII. Ex corpore mane ponderato antè & post excretionem sensibilem, quanta fuerit nocturna perspiratio, & sensibilia excrementa, facillimè intelligitur.

“VI. If a day’s food and drink weigh eight pounds, insensible perspiration usually comes to about five. … VIII. From the body weighed in the morning before and after sensible excretion, how much the night’s perspiration and the sensible excrements amounted to is very easily understood.”

Santorio weighed himself, his food and his excretions in a suspended chair, by his own account for thirty years.

Hippolytus Guarinoni, The Abominations of the Desolation of Humankind · German, Ingolstadt 1610a physician on exercise

Das ander Ballnspiel ist eines etwas grössern/lideraen/härten Ballns/ wellichen man mit der Hand schlagt vnd wider schlagt/durch ganz Italien/vnd viler Orten Teutschlands

“The second ball game uses a somewhat larger, leathern, hard ball, which one strikes and strikes back with the hand. This is common throughout all of Italy and many places in Germany.”

Guarinoni describes the game as a physician watching it: the players go without gloves, because a glove costs speed and aim, and their hands swell from the blows. He admits he was tempted to try it himself.

Girard Thibault, Académie de l’espée, Circle no. 3 · French, 1628walking the circle

lesquels on y pourra pratiquer en mettant premierement le pied gauche sur la lettre C. & cheminant de l’autre en avant iusques à le planter à plein, sur le G, au milieu de la ligne; menant en apres le gauche circulairement le long de la circonference depuis C iusques à N: puis avançant derechef le droit le long du mesme costé du Quarré inscrit … en sorte que le pied droit aille tousiours suivant les quatre lignes du Quarré inscrit, & le gauche soit porté en rond costoyant tousiours la circonference

“which one may practise by first setting the left foot on the letter C and walking the other forward until it is planted flat on the G, in the middle of the line; then carrying the left round along the circumference from C to N; then advancing the right again along the same side of the inscribed square … so that the right foot always follows the four lines of the inscribed square, and the left is carried round, always keeping to the circumference.”

The only Western manual we hold that gives a position (a letter on the floor), a foot, a direction and a count. The floor diagram is scaled to the fencer’s body. 341 of 448 pages translated.

Jacob de Gheyn, The Exercise of Arms · French edition, 1608the Maniement d’armes, with numbered plates

Premièrement, est enseigné à chaque Mousquetaire, comme il tiendra proprement le Mousquet, & la fourchette en marchant, á sçavoir qu’ayant la fourchette en la main droite a chaque pas il la posera en terre

“Firstly, it is taught to each Musketeer how he shall properly hold the Musket and the rest while marching; namely, that having the rest in the right hand, at each step he shall place it on the ground.”

Each numbered paragraph matches a numbered engraving: which hand holds what, where the elbow rests, when to turn the musket. The plates follow the text; the first is below.

Thoinot Arbeau, Orchésographie · French, 1589the soldier’s march

le soldat pose son pied gauche sur la premiere notte, puis son pied droit sur la troisiesme notte, puis encor son pied gaulche sur la cinquiesme.

“The soldier places his left foot on the first note, then his right foot on the third note, then his left foot again on the fifth.”

A dancing master’s account of the march, with the drum rhythm printed in notation. The step is set to the drum, the distance to the step.

Nicolaes Petter, Clear Instruction in the Art of Wrestling · Dutch, Amsterdam 1674with engraved plates

C aldus B aengegrepen hebbende, set sijn slincker voet midden op ’t lijf van B. C dese slincker voet aldus geset hebbende, werpt sich selven achter over, waer door dat B … genoodruckt wort over C heen te vallen.

“C, having thus grasped B, places his left foot in the middle of the body of B. Having thus placed this left foot, C throws himself backward, through which B … is forced to fall over C.”

Each hold is numbered and lettered to match a plate, followed by its counter. The long ſ of the print is normalised.

Jan Amos Comenius, Orbis sensualium pictus, ch. 87, Natatus · Latin with English, 1658Charles Hoole’s English, printed beside the Latin

Solent etiam tranare aquas, super scirpeum fascem, porrò super inflatas boum Vesicas; deinde, liberè jactatu manuum pedumque. Tandem didicerunt calcare aquam, cingulotenus immersi, & vestes supra caput gestando.

Men are wont also to swim over waters upon a bundle of flags, & besides upon blown Beast-bladders; and after, by throwing their Hands & Feet abroad. At last they learned to tread the water, being plunged up to the girdle-stead, and carrying their Cloathes upon their Head.

A lesson in stages for children, with a numbered woodcut. The English is the book’s own, printed in the facing column.

Clavicula Salomonis, Book I · Latin manuscript, c. 1750the master in the circle

ad percutiendum aerem, vel ad feriendum eum, & coniurandos Spiritus, ponat dexteram cum gladio super pentacula descripta in Carta Virginea, & posita super pectus eius, & dicat submissa voce hanc coniurationem flexis genibus versus orientem.

“…to strike the air, or to beat it, and to conjure the Spirits: let him lay his right hand with the sword upon the pentacles drawn on virgin parchment, placed upon his breast, and let him say this conjuration in a low voice, on bended knees, toward the east.”

reformet Magister Circulum cum gladio artis, postea elevet ad Caelum dictum gladium, quasi aerem velit percutere, et ponat manum dexteram super pentacula cum gladio, et flexis genibus, dicat coram altissimo, magna cum humilitate, sequentem Confessionem, quam etiam Discipuli facere debent, submissa voce, ut non intelligatur.

“Let the Master re-form the Circle with the sword of art, then raise that sword to Heaven as though he would strike the air, and lay his right hand with the sword upon the pentacles; and on bended knees let him say before the Most High, with great humility, the Confession that follows — which the Disciples must also make, in a lowered voice, so that it is not understood.”

The rite specifies the circle, the sword, the hand and the kneeling. Four Latin and English Keys are held, plus the Lemegeton and the Grand Grimoire.

The Greater Key of Solomon, Book II · English, Mathers 1889to learn a hidden thing

taking thy carpet, thou shalt cover thy head and body therewith, and taking the censer, with new fire therein, thou shalt place it in or upon the proper place, and cast thereon some incense. Then shalt thou prostrate thyself upon the ground, with thy face towards the earth, before the incense beginneth to fume, keeping the fire of the same beneath the carpet, holding thy wand upright, against which to rest thy chin; thou shalt hold with thy right hand the aforesaid strip of parchment against thy forehead.

Quoted as printed; the edition is in English. Covered by the carpet, face down, chin on the upright wand, parchment held to the forehead.

Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon · English, Robert Turner, 1657to be answered in sleep

and go to sleep, and take the Figure for this purpose, and put it under the right Ear: … and write in thy right hand Alpha and Omega, with the ſign of the Croſs, and put that hand under thy right Ear, and faſt the day before; only once eating ſuch meat as is uſed on faſting dayes.

The long ſ is the print’s. The text gives an hour (the second or third of the night), a body position, a fast and a sign written on the hand.

Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia general (Florentine Codex), Book 1, ch. 16, on Ixtlilton · Spanish beside Nahuatl, c. 1577the areito, as a friar saw it

Porque esta manera, de dançar, o baylar: es muy diferente, de otros bayles, y danças: pongo aqui, la manera, que tiene, en estas danças, o bayles: que por otro nombre, se llaman areytos: y en su lengua, se llaman, maceoaliztli. Juntauan se muchos, de dos en dos, o de tres en tres: en vn gran corro, segun la cantidad, de los que eran: lleuando flores, en las manos, y ataujados con plumajes: hazian todos a vna, vn mesmo meneo, con el cuerpo, y con los pies, y con las manos: cosa bien de ver, y bien artificiosa: todos los meneos, yuan segun el son, que tañian, los tañedores, del atambor, y del teponaztli.

“Because this manner of dancing is very different from other dances, I put here the manner that they have in these dances, which by another name are called areitos, and in their language maceualiztli. They gathered many, in twos or threes, in a great circle, according to the number of those who were there, carrying flowers in their hands and adorned with feathers. And they all made the same movement with the body, with the feet, and with the hands; it was a thing well worth seeing and very artful. All the movements went according to the rhythm that the players of the drum and the teponaztli played.”

Sahagún adds that “the same they do now, although in another manner: they have changed the movements, the countenances, and the dress.” Maceualiztli is “the deserving,” the dance as an act of merit; the Nahuatl column of this leaf gives the god’s feast and the four-day covered jar but not the friar’s description of the step. Text read from the leaf, the scribe’s abbreviations expanded.

Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 2, the feast of Tlaxochimaco · Spanish beside Nahuatl, c. 1577the warriors’ dance in the court of Huitzilopochtli

Tambien en esta dança, entrauan mugeres, moças publicas: y yuan asidos de las manos, una muger, entre dos hombres y un hombre entre dos mugeres, a manera de las danças, que haze en castilla la vieja, la gente popular: y dançauan culebreando, y cantando. Y los que hazian el son para la dança, y regian el canto, estauan juntos arrimados, a un altar redondo, que llamauan mumuztli. En esta dança, no hazian ademanes ningunos con los pies, ni con las manos, ni con las cabeças: ni hazian bueltas ningunas, mas de yr con pasos llanos, al compas del son, y del canto, muy a espacio: nadie osaua hazer ningun bollicio, ni atrauesar, por el espacio, donde dançauan.

“Also in this dance women entered, public young women; and they went holding hands, one woman between two men and one man between two women, in the manner of the dances that the common people perform in Old Castile; and they danced snaking along, and singing. And those who made the rhythm for the dance and directed the singing were together, leaning against a round altar which they called momoztli. In this dance they did not make any gestures with their feet, nor with their hands, nor with their heads, nor did they perform any turns, other than going with flat steps to the beat of the rhythm and of the song, very slowly. No one dared make any noise, nor cross through the space where they were dancing.”

The Nahuatl beside it has the dancers “all in a row, they wove themselves, nowhere breaking, nowhere stopping,” with the singers and drummers apart by the walls. The dance began at noon, led by the bravest warriors, the otomih and the cuachicqueh, in the order of their rank.

Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 2, the feast of Toxcatl · Spanish beside Nahuatl, c. 1577the priests’ leap, toxcachocholoa

quando estos yuan dançando, llegauan al suelo, con el cetro, como sustentandose en el, segun los pasos que yuan dando: y los que hazian el son, para baylar, estauan dentro, de vna casa, que llamauan calpulco, de manera que no se veian, los vnos a los otros, ni los que baylauan, a los que tañian, ni los que tañian, a los que baylauan. ⋯ Toda la gente del palacio, y la gente de guerra, viejos y moços, dançauan en otras partes del patio, trauados de las manos, y culebreando.

“When they went dancing, they reached the ground with the sceptre, as if supporting themselves upon it according to the steps they were taking. And those who made the music for the dancing were inside a house they called calpulco, so that they did not see one another: neither the dancers the musicians, nor the musicians the dancers. ⋯ All the people of the palace and the warriors, old and young, danced in other parts of the courtyard, holding hands and snaking.”

The leaf before names the priests’ dance toxcachocholoa, “the leaping of Toxcatl”: the maidens danced round the hearth with painted paper on split reeds held in both hands, and the priests “danced, they jumped.” The sceptre is a palm staff with a flower of black feathers at the tip and a ball of black feathers at the foot.

Diego de Landa, Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, § XXII · Spanish, c. 1566, in the 1864 printingtwo dances “very manly and worth seeing”

tienen especialmente dos vailes muy de hombre y de ver. El uno es un juego de cañas y assi le llaman ellos Colomche que lo quiere dezir; para jugarlo se junta una gran rueda de vailadores con su musica que les haze son y por su compas salen dos de la rueda, el uno con un manojo de bohordos, y vaila con ellos en hiesto. El otro vaila en cuclillas, ambos con compas de la rueda, y el de los bohordos con toda su fuerça los tira al otro, el qual con gran destreza con un palo pequeño arrebatelos. Acabado de tirar buelven con su compas a la rueda y salen otros hazer lo mismo. Otro vaile ay en que vailan ocho cientos y mas y menos indios con banderas pequeñas con son y passo

“They have especially two dances that are very manly and worth seeing. One is a game of reeds, and thus they call it colomche, which is what it means. To play it, a large circle of dancers gathers with their music that makes sound for them, and by its rhythm two emerge from the wheel, one with a bundle of reeds, and he dances with them standing upright. The other dances in a squat, both in time with the wheel, and the one with the reeds throws them with all his strength at the other, who with great dexterity catches them with a small stick. Once the throwing is finished, they return in time to the wheel and others come out to do the same. There is another dance in which eight hundred, or more or fewer, Indians dance with small flags, with sound and step…”

The sentence finishes on the next leaf: “at a great war pace, without there being a single one who does not observe the measure. In their dances they are generally heavy, for during the whole day they do not cease to dance.” Men did not dance with women. The music is a turtle shell struck with the palm, reed whistles, deer-bone whistles, conches and the tunkul slit drum.

Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca, Comentarios reales de los Incas, IX.1 · Spanish, first printed Lisbon 1609; the copy held is a modern typesettingthe Incas’ chain dance

Los Incas tenían un bailar grave y honesto, sin brincos ni saltos ni otras mudanzas, como los demás hacían. Eran varones los que bailaban, sin consentir que bailasen mujeres entre ellos; asíanse de las manos, dando cada uno las suyas por delante, no a los primeros que tenía a sus lados, sino a los segundos, y así las iban dando de mano en mano, hasta los últimos, de manera que iban encadenados. Bailaban doscientos y trescientos hombres juntos, y más, según la solemnidad de la fiesta. Empezaban el baile apartados del Príncipe ante quien se hacía. Salían todos juntos; daban tres pasos en compás, el primero hacia atrás y los otros dos hacia adelante, que eran como los pasos que en las danzas españolas llaman dobles y represas; con estos pasos, yendo y viniendo, iban ganando tierra siempre para delante, hasta llegar en medio cerco adonde el Inca estaba.

“The Incas had a grave and honest dance, without leaps or jumps or other changes, as the others did. The ones who danced were men, without consenting to let women dance among them; they held onto each other’s hands, each one giving theirs forward, not to the first ones at their sides but to the second ones, and thus they went on passing them from hand to hand until the last ones, in such a way that they went chained together. Two hundred or three hundred men would dance together, and more, depending on the solemnity of the feast. They began the dance apart from the Prince before whom it was being performed. They all came out together; they took three steps in rhythm, the first backward and the other two forward, which were like the steps that in Spanish dances are called doubles and reprises; with these steps, going and coming, they gained ground always forward until reaching the half-circle where the Inca was.”

From this grip Huayna Cápac took the idea of the gold chain: the dancers should hold a rope of gold instead of each other’s hands. Garcilaso’s great-uncle told him it ran the two lengths of the square of Cuzco, each link as thick as a wrist. The King himself sometimes danced.

Garcilaso, Comentarios reales, V.2 · Spanish, 1609the haylli: ploughing the Sun’s terrace to a song

el retruécano de todas sus coplas era la palabra haylli, repetida muchas veces, cuantas eran menester para cumplir el compás que los indios traen en un cierto contrapaso que hacen, barbechando la tierra con entradas y salidas que hacen para tomar vuelo y romperla mejor. Traen por arado un palo de una braza en largo; es llano por delante y rollizo por detrás; tiene cuatro dedos de ancho; hácenle una punta para que entre en la tierra; media vara de la punta hacen un estribo de dos palos atados fuertemente al palo principal, donde el indio pone el pie de salto, y con la fuerza hinca el arado hasta el estribo. Andan en cuadrillas de siete en siete y de ocho en ocho, más y menos, como en la parentela o camarada, y, apalancando todos juntos a una, levantan grandísimos céspedes ⋯ sin perder el compás del canto.

“The refrain of all their verses was the word haylli, repeated many times, as many as were necessary to fulfil the rhythm that the Indians keep in a certain counter-step that they make, ploughing the land with entries and exits that they make to gain momentum and break it better. They use as a plough a stick a fathom in length; it is flat in front and round behind; it has four fingers of width; they make a point on it so that it enters the earth; half a yard from the point they make a stirrup of two sticks tied strongly to the main stick, where the Indian puts his foot in a jump, and with the force he thrusts the plough in up to the stirrup. They go in squads of seven or eight, more or less, as in a kinship or a company, and, levering all together at once, they lift very large sods ⋯ without losing the rhythm of the song.”

A technique of work rather than of worship, kept here because it is counted and sung: the foot-plough, the chakitaklla, is still used in the Andes. The women work facing the men, turning the sods. Garcilaso saw the rite as a boy in Cuzco; in 1551 or 1552 the cathedral’s choirmaster set the haylli for the feast of Corpus Christi and eight mestizo schoolboys danced it in the procession with ploughs in their hands.

David R. Lamson, Two Years’ Experience Among the Shakers · English, West Boylston 1848the stance before the exercises

The brethren, and sisters emerge from their apartments, and preceded by the Eldress, march into the Hall; the sisters entering one door, and the brethren the other; and range themselves in rank and file order. The elders standing at the head of the first, or front rank, and Deacons next, and the principal singers next; the younger members standing in the rear. These two phalanxes, one of sisters, the other of brethren, formed across the Hall, face each other. The space between these two bodies is called the altar. … Having placed themselves in this form, all standing erect, with folded hands, the right thumb over the left according to divine order, the exercises commence, usually with a song, or short hymn.

Lamson joined the Hancock community in 1843 and left after two years; he writes as a hostile witness, which is why he records the mechanics rather than the doctrine. Instrumental music was forbidden; every dance was sung. Punctuation as printed.

Lamson, Two Years’ Experience · 1848the quick manner, and the turning

The brethren having laid off their coats, and the sisters laid aside their handkerchiefs were ready to “labor.” The singers struck up a lively tune, (instrumental music is not allowed) when all start off in a lively trot, making a small circuit in an irregular manner, the brethren and sisters not mingling together, but each occupying either end of the Hall; when they came to the set of the tune, they faced towards the singers, and shuffled in time. … Directly after the exercise of dancing commenced, one of the sisters commenced turning round very rapidly, and directly another followed her example, and then another, and another, until five or six were engaged in this operation. … This turning is not upon the toe, or heel, but by a continual stepping of one foot around the other, generally with the eyes closed. They turn from ten minutes to three quarters of an hour, and sometimes much longer. I have seen the young sisters turn three quarters of an hour without any intermission, or appearance of dizziness, at the rate of from forty to sixty turns in a minute.

On the next page Lamson reports that the young brethren told him the turning was “acquired by practice,” that girls too young for the meeting were trained in a corner of the meeting-house, and that beginners staggered and fell. The figures are the observer’s count.

Lamson, Two Years’ Experience · 1848the travel manner: a march, 23 February 1845

The singers, about six or eight or more of them, then placed themselves in the center of the room, in two ranks, the one facing the other, sisters facing sisters, and brethren facing brethren, with the spit box in the middle. And the remainder formed a circle around them, three abreast. The brethren by themselves, forming one segment of the circle, and the sisters by themselves forming the other. The children form the inside file of the circle. The singers then strike up a march, which they sing over four or five times, repeating once, each part of the tune, every time; while the company march, and all, both singers and laborers beat the time with their hands. Each placing his two hands before him in a horizontal direction moves them up and down in time with the tune. When the tune ceases all stop until another tune is struck.

The elder then calls the quick manner: sisters to the east of the hall, brethren to the west, singers in a line on the north side, and on the first tune “they turn, the brethren to the left, and sisters to the right.” The Shakers’ own dance manuals, from Meacham’s square-order shuffle of the 1780s onward, survive mostly in manuscript and are not held.

Calvin Green and Seth Y. Wells, A Summary View of the Millennial Church, ch. 5, “The Worship of God” · English, Albany 1823the Shakers’ own argument

Since we are blessed with hands and feet, those active and useful members of the body on which we mostly depend, in our own service, shall we not acknowledge our obligations to God who gave them, by exercising them in our devotions to him? ⋯ There is too powerful a connection between the body and mind, and too strong an influence of the mind upon the body, to admit of much activity of mind in the service of God, without the co-operating exercises of the body. But where the heart is sincerely and fervently engaged in the service of God, it has a tendency to produce an active influence on the body.

The Society’s authorised statement of its faith, written against the ridicule Lamson would later join. The chapter argues from Miriam’s timbrels, Jephthah’s daughter, David before the ark and Psalm 149, and closes with Jeremiah: “then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together.” It gives no steps.

James Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 · English, Washington 1896the ceremony, as seen among the Arapaho and Cheyenne

When all is ready, the leaders walk out to the dance place, and facing inward, join hands so as to form a small circle. Then, without moving from their places they sing the opening song, according to previous agreement, in a soft undertone. Having sung it through once they raise their voices to their full strength and repeat it, this time slowly circling around in the dance. The step is different from that of most other Indian dances, but very simple, the dancers moving from right to left, following the course of the sun, advancing the left foot and following it with the right, hardly lifting the feet from the ground. For this reason it is called by the Shoshoni the ga-ut-la-ti-ga “dragging dance.” All the songs are adapted to the simple measure of the dance step. … In holding each other’s hands the dancers usually intertwine the fingers instead of grasping the hand as with us.

Mooney danced in the circle himself in 1890–91. The page before describes the painting of the dancers from trance visions and a leader’s gesture within the circle: palm struck on the earth, laid on the head, breathed into, repeated. Each song is started in an undertone standing still, then at full voice in motion; a circle of fifty grows to five hundred.

Washington Matthews, The Night Chant: A Navaho Ceremony, §§ 628–631 · English, New York 1902the naakhaí dance of the ninth night

When all the figures of the dance, proper, heretofore described, have been repeated four times, the Yébaad return from their line in the north and a single line is formed of alternate Yébaka and Yébaad facing west. Hastséyalti whoops and places himself at the eastern end of the line; all face east and, dancing in a lock-step, as closely packed together as the dancing will allow, they move to the east. … All the acts described are performed in a most orderly and regular manner, without the slightest hitch, hesitancy, or confusion on the part of any of the participants. No orders or verbal promptings are given. The dancers take their cue, partly from the acts and calls of Hastséyalti; but mostly from the meaningless syllables of the song they are singing. At certain parts of the song certain changes of the figure are made. … Except when performing the dipping motion described and when turning around, the veritable male dancer holds the upper arms hanging by the side, the forearms partly flexed, a gourd rattle in the right hand, a wand of spruce in the left.

The figure before this is two lines, male and female, from which each couple in turn locks arms and dances “down the middle” to meet the god Hastséyalti; Matthews notes that white visitors likened it to the Virginia reel. On the next page: the men lift the right foot high and hold it horizontal for two notes, the women shuffle on their toes; a figure lasts five minutes, the rest as long, and the whole from dark to daybreak.